Google has a long-standing history of leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to aid in crawling and indexing web pages. However, recent updates from the company have demonstrated an even more profound commitment to embracing AI's potential across multiple services, including Universal Analytics’ successor, Google Analytics 4.

Today, we'll delve into the exciting developments in GA4 and explore how AI is transforming the world of web analytics, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions like never before.

GA4 & automated AI insights

Universal Analytics was an incredibly powerful toolbox for gathering essential data, but raw data is meaningless if you can’t interpret and apply it to your content and site development strategies - Here’s where GA4’s automated AI insights can help.

Powered by machine learning, this feature works tirelessly behind the GA4 scenes, constantly sifting through your data to form connections in logic that might take analysts hours to discover when combing through the data manually.

Any anomalous data events or emerging trends are discovered automatically in a matter of seconds. They’re then delivered to you front and centre of the UI with short, simple textual overviews backed up by digestible graphics.

For example, let’s say that your email campaign suddenly shot up from 10% to account for 40% of your conversions, GA4’s AI system will lock onto and form the semantic connections between different data points and present its findings to you in understandable terms.

By prioritising clarity, these AI insights contribute to a more democratised, less adamantine software that can provide a wealth of benefits even to those with little to no analysis expertise - all while making life much easier for those who do possess analytics skills.

Much like Google’s recently announced Search Generative Experience, GA4’s AI features are designed to streamline the company’s offering for all.

Learning on the Job

Google knows that you won’t be interested in every insight GA4’s AI facilities provide, which is why they’ve kitted each insight with a simple feedback feature that facilitates a conversation of sorts between you and the AI analyst.

As shown by the above screenshot, hover your cursor above one of the insights, and you’ll see thumbs-up and thumbs-down symbols. If you value the insight, you’ll give it a thumbs up, and if you don’t, you’ll give it a thumbs down. 

This feedback shapes the AI algorithms to suit your needs, increasing the frequency of valuable insights over time.

GA4 & custom AI insights

While real-time machine learning based on user feedback is a pretty nifty feature, there’ll always be an element of chance involved with automated insights, which is why GA4 gives you the option to create custom AI insights.

Those who’d prefer to develop a more focused framework for Google’s AI system can define precisely the parameters they want it to keep tabs on, ensuring the insights generated are highly relevant to your business.

Users are welcome to create up to 50 bespoke insights per property, tracking metrics and thresholds essential to their unique targets. 

When your AI assistant finds something based on these custom parameters, you receive an instant email notification, empowering you to make informed, data-driven decisions efficiently without the hassle of manual analysis.

Let’s say, for instance, that you’re trying to optimise for mobile users and need to assign a device distribution threshold to track progress. You can configure an insight to inform you when mobile users account for 60% of your total traffic.

With this support, you can monitor and progress your strategy with fewer resources, as the data analysis is carried out rapidly for you in real-time.

For such a powerful tool, it’s an incredibly simple process, although, unlike automated insights, tailoring insights to your specific needs will require some analytics know-how.

GA4 & AI recommendations

The third and final AI feature introduced in GA4 is a personalised recommendations tool that takes the customisable nature of its AI integration to the next level.

This time around, GA4 isn’t just providing actionable data, but suggesting the action itself, taking into account your current marketing initiatives to make informed recommendations that help you meet your short- and long-term targets.

These suggestions could pertain to any aspect of your data that suggests you may not have realised operational efficiency. You might be informed of similarities between your target audience and a yet untapped pool of customers, or it could be a more specific suggestion for optimising campaign performance, such as lowering an ad bid for an especially costly keyword.

Whatever the focus, you’ll be provided with a user-friendly roadmap for implementing the recommendation, meaning your AI assistant shoulders a significant amount of strategic burden so you can view and orchestrate the bigger picture of your marketing efforts.

Final thoughts

GA4 improves upon Universal Analytics in a number of ways, but the marriage of this software and AI is a game-changer in the world of web analytics.

With automated AI insights, customised AI parameters, and personalised recommendations, GA4 empowers businesses to harness the full potential of the software, making data-driven decisions more accessible and efficient than ever before.

If you’d like to talk more about GA4’s AI tools or how we use AI to support your digital marketing campaigns, contact us today.